I Like Her
by myshippingdock
Summary: Echizen finds a stupid list that angers him and makes him reanalyze Osakada Tomoka.


Mini rant: I don't care that Ryoma X Tomoka has no fandom. I ship it. I get that it's too late to give it some fan-attention now, but I haven't been able to help it. I always discover fandoms too late.

Buut, Late or not, fandom or no fandom. I really love it right now. I've noticed there were a few rare RyoTomo shippers out there, but unfortunately, they don't seem to be active any longer?

I rllyrlly hope for atleast one or two other RyoTomo shippers beside me, but even if there's no one to join me in my adoration for this ship, I'm all aboard it. It feels kinda sad and lonely shipping it on my own, (I'd love for there to be other RyoTomo shippers, so if there's anyone , anyone at all that likes this ship even a teeny weeny bit, give me a shout!)

Sigh, it's a dead fandom, but RyoTomo is my biggest POT love, my OTP of the Prince Of Tennis series and given that there are barely any fan appreciations for it, (no fanarts, few fics, videos,etc), I will write for it between spaces of my unoccupied time.

Tomoka hate and unpopularity feels ridiculous, stupid and irritating to me. I absolutely dislike that Sakuno is sooooo popular, while Tomoka is completely ignored by the POT fandom at large.

'Loud' and 'annoying fangirl' are two, awfully narrow misconstructs created by a biased, hind-sighted, narrow fanbase, no doubt also fueled by anime exaggerations.

Tomoka is not a stereo-'typical' fangirl type character. She cleanly breaks that mold into pieces.

(there's so much irrational hate for fangirl archetypes in general, it's getting stupid. A lot of the hate is truly baseless, someday, I'll rant about it more, Tomoka's not the only fan-girl-type character that suffers this kinda hate.)

The 'loud' thing is awfully exaggerated and taken out of context. The only time she's loud is when she's 'cheering', (and you're supposed to be loud when cheering or you can't call it cheering, there's a double standard to- oh, if Sakuno's cheering aloud, it's okay and allowed, but if its Tomoka, its just loud and unpleasant.) or she's loud when she's excited, which is again, totally 'normal'.

The rest of the time, and especially when interacting with Ryoma, she's actually quite polite and mellow. Buuut people choose to ignore that! What I don't understand Why do people put an unpleasant spin to the loud aspect of her personality?

I admit, some of her cheering tactics (lyricsT_T) are downright embarrassing, but those are anime exaggerations, not part of actual canon. All she does in the manga in that context, is start a fanclub for him and cheer exuberantly when he's playing and get a little huffy when other girls approach him. That's it.

She should not be annoying simply because she adores Ryoma and expresses it forthrightly.

She should not be annoying because she's candid and bold enough to walk up to her idol and actually talk to/flirt with him, while Sakuno's stuck in the background feeling miserable and unable to string sentences together properly.

She should not be annoying because she's actually fiercely protective of her friend and occasionally tries to push Sakuno into being pro-active.

Does anyone ever wonder what could have happened if she disregarded Sakuno's feelings and seriously tried to pursue a relationship with Echizen Ryoma? I personally don't see Sakuno in the running at all, if Tomoka were to actually try to befriend Ryoma and not hide behind her fangirl antiques all the time.

In any case, realistically speaking, it would take someone like Osakada Tomoka to demand, grab and keep the attention of Echizen Ryoma. Ryuuzaki Sakuno would fade into the background with ease.

I don't give a crap that Sakuno was the Mangaka's preferred idea of 'main' love interest. I really resent that, but I am soo glad, that at the very least Ryoma himself shows absolutely no particular preference for her, at all, whatsoever in the manga.

Anime fillers are just that, anime fillers. It never happened, not canon. And Ireally appreciate, more than anything, that RyoSaku is not actually canon in any way. With where the manga and anime left off, I can still imagine RyoTomo with absolute clarity, way way down the road.

I have so much more to say but I'll save that rant for the companion fic: Crossing Out Reasons To Not Like Her.

Reasons to Not Like her : {Two- Shot}

Echizen Ryoma was mad; not just any mad, but eye twitching, jaw-ticking, fist clenching mad. He viciously crumpled the piece of paper in his hand and moved to hightail it into the trash can when the object of the paper's disdainful conversation grabbed his wrist.

She wrested the crumpled piece of shit from his hand, and resting her hands on her petite waist in an exaggerated motion, demanded to know _what_ had his knickers twisted in a bunch?

If his ire at the moment hadn't been directed elsewhere, he would have strictly objected to her choice of vocabulary and told her to leave his knickers out of their conversation.

"Ryoma-sama, I'm waiting!"

"Nothing" he bit out.

"Don't give me that! We saw you kick the door on your way out! Right Sakuno?!"

"Mmm, yeah" Ryuuzaki quietly agreed.

"..Then, you were glaring daggers at this piece of paper..whats on it?" she continued, narrowing her eyes at him?"

He angled his head sharply away from her and refused to meet her gaze.

"Are you going tell us yourself or should I just read it?" she prompted, moving to face him and waving the sorry piece of paper in his face.

He started to say " I don't care ..", then abruptly changed his mind.

He moved for it just as she realized what he was about and moved a step back to avoid his reach, and immediately situated herself behind Ryuuzaki , so she could use the other girl as a shield.

He stopped abruptly, running a nervous hand through his hair. Why was she so impossible to deal with?

Ryuuzaki would have just handed him the paper and not persisted in a conversation he clearly did not want to have.

He did not want Osakada to read that thing.

He did not know if she would be hurt or mad after, or both. He just knew he didn't care to find out.

He did not care for her to know he was bothered by it; especially when he wasn't quite sure about his reasons yet.

He did not want for her to get ideas; ideas he wasn't quite ready to digest for himself yet.

He watched her face in silence as her eyes ran over the shitty list of reasons why Echizen Ryoma could never be interested in Osakada Tomoka.

She went pale as she moved down the list, her grey-green iris darkening to a dull storm. His stomach felt like lead as she bent her head, bangs shading her eyes from view.

"Osakada-"

"Ryoma-sama!", she hastily interjected, gently grabbing his hand pushing the list back into it, "you really didn't need to make a list like this. You could have just told me. I wasn't looking to get with you, you know. I hadn't realized I was bothering you so much though. "

"Don't you worry", she said all in one breath, wrinkling her nose and patting his forehead twice before turning and walking away, "Osakada Tomoka will keep her distance and not be a pain in your butt, starting right now. Ja ne."

And she was gone. Just like that, leaving behind a startled Echizen Ryoma in her wake.


End file.
